Seven Seas Saga Review by Anurag Ghosh

Seven Seas Saga is a browser-based ship simulation and sea battle 3D MMORPG that revolves around the world of pirates and privateers. Set in Medieval Europe, this open-ended game lets players embark on a voyage along the treacherous seas of the Mediterranean. Gamers can conduct trade, battle deadly buccaneer ships and hunt for legendary treasures. Published by JoyHubs (in partnership with 7Cool Games), Seven Seas infuses role-playing elements into a pirate-themed game, making gameplay more engaging. But will this RPG-ship simulation combo appeal to gamers?

Character Creation Screen

The game's character creation screen is fairly simple. Players will be asked to choose a nationality from the list of 4 maritime nations. The game's useful tutorial mode starts soon after you select a country, gender and choose a name for yourself, either by typing manually or by using the game's random name-generation option. The tutorial mode explains key aspects of the game, which includes crew recruitment, ship building/management, skill system, trading and sea battles. Step-by-step instructions make it fairly easy for beginners to understand the bare-basics, which will be of immense help at later stages of the game.

Ship Management

Gameplay focuses on sea exploration, trade and combat. The quest-based missions are quite interesting and varied, beginning with a rescue mission and slowly building its way towards immersive quests roughly based on medieval European history and folklore. In all quests, you will need to maneuver your 3D ship to reach ports of importance, conduct trade and battle pirate ships in the middle of the treacherous sea. In-between quests, you will get into fascinating conversations between the titular character and non-playing characters. The dialogues exchanged between two characters certainly helps players understand where the story is heading to. The game blends pirate history with its fictional story pretty well and strings multiple quests into a single mini-story, making gameplay fun and less confusing. The simple point-and-click interface lets you move your ship and battle pirates at the click of the mouse button. The game also has a nice "auto voyage" option that allows you to reach the target without manually clicking on a destination. This will help you from getting lost in the open-ended world.

Sea Battles

One of Seven Seas Saga's key gameplay aspects is sea combat. You can initiate a battle by visiting a pirate's lair via the Battle option or get into a sea brawl while exploring the sea. The game's social features allow you to add friends, join guilds and associations for co-op battles and battle friends in special PvP arena within the sea. All social aspects are similar to popular role-playing games, but are more interesting since battle takes place on the seas, between ships. The point and click interface lets you start a battle merely by clicking on the enemy ship. But things get rather complicated if the enemy ship is powerful than your craft. This is where proper ship upgrades, crew and attached weapons come into play. Developers gave due importance to the role of crew members and ship upgrades. You will need to recruit new members at regular intervals, upgrade the ships' cannons, equip your ship with items to increase its speed, attack range/defense attributes and keep a track of rations and food for your distant voyage. Crew members can be assigned to key parts of the ship (gun deck, fore mast, helm room etc.) and can also be upgraded individually by unlocking key skills and enhancing their attributes. All these elements play a crucial role in sea battle and voyage. You can also buy a new ship at regular intervals, provided you rake in enough coins by completing quests and battling more pirates. Along with upgrading your ship, you can also upgrade the game's titular character, i.e. the ship's captain by distributing skill points earned during quests and adding special attributes that assist in defeating powerful ships during combat.

Game Interface

The game's interface is quite neat and easy to access. You will need to visit taverns, dockyards, royal palaces and exchanges to recruit new crew members, buy/sell items, upgrade your ship, have a conversation with the King/Queen on affairs concerning the sea and replenishing rations for a long voyage. All key areas of interest within a port can be easily accessed by clicking on options neatly tucked at the top of the game screen. Battles can be accessed via a separate menu and ship upgrades can be easily done through a special menu. Each option has a separate menu, making captain, ship and crew management simple and less fussy.

Graphics: 3D Ships

The game graphics are top-notch. I found all 3D ships designed quite well. Each of your ships purchased via the dockyard looks different from the other ship. The sea battle animations are quite good and one can easily sea cannon balls being exchanged between two ships. Ship movement within the sea is smooth, but my only gripe is the slow response times of a ship when you click on an area to move it. The ship's path-finding tends to be a bit spotty at times, but the inclusion of the "auto voyage" feature fixes such problem.

Seven Seas Saga adds a fresh spin to the ship simulation/sea combat genre by giving players a chance to tweak and upgrade their ships before they can take them to the seas. The game not only recreates the life of medieval pirates and privateers, but also recreates the complexity and challenge of managing a ship. The game's excellent ship management feature, complete with engaging sea battles and an amazing set of quests and challenges ensure an excellent maritime adventure. Will this appeal to MMORPG gamers? Yes it will, as it blends role-playing elements with ship simulation, adding a new twist to the genre.

Self Introduction From Author:

Anurag Ghosh

Anurag Ghosh is a social gaming aficionado who enjoys playing Facebook and
browser-based games. He loves writing strategy guides, walkthroughs and
tips/tricks that help newbie and expert gamers alike. Follow his guides and tips
to learn more about your favorite social/browser
games.